Trainspotting 2 Cast: Here's Who's Set To Return

In news that Trainspotting fans have been waiting to hear now for almost 20 years, the sequel to the heroin-addled tale of drugs, child abuse, poor life choices, more drugs, and James Bond has been confirmed. With that happy news also comes the knowledge that most of the cast of the original film are returning as well.

Trainspotting 2, which Danny Boyle has already admitted he’ll call T-2 if he gets James Cameron’s blessing, has been picked up for worldwide distribution by Sony’s TriStar Pictures (via Variety). But who is returning for the hugely anticipated follow-up to the generation defining Trainspotting? Well, have a gander below.

Ewan McGregor

The fact that Ewan McGregor signed on the dotted line for Trainspotting 2 is what has allowed the film to finally become a reality. While the Scot had long made it known that he’d love to reprise his role as Renton, the fact he and Danny Boyle had a wee falling out over the latter’s decision to cast Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach meant the film was a little bit up in the air. Their quarrel is seemingly over, and now we’ll be able to see what Rent Boy did exactly with the money he stole from his pals.

Robert Carlyle

Would Trainspotting have hit as hard if Robert Carlyle hadn’t so terrifyingly brought Begbie to life? Fuck knows. Also, who cares? Because he did, and just the thought of seeing what Bobby C can do with "Franco" now that he’s almost 20 years older is enough to send chills down your spine. Especially since he’s not likely to have forgotten or forgiven McGregors Renton for his thievery. In fact, even though the film is probably still at least 18 months away, it already has all the ingredients for a Best Supporting Actor nomination landing in Carlyle's lap.

Jonny Lee Miller

It’s sometimes easy to forget that Jonny Lee Miller, who has since gone on to achieve notoriety thanks to his performances in Elementary, was a part of the Trainspottingensemble. But as the slightly smarmy but still magnetic and equally flawed Sick Boy, Miller has probably never been more captivating. While you could always imagine the other characters falling into the same old traps, there was something innately smart and cunning about Sick Boy that suggests he might have found his way out of the squalor of Trainspotting. I’m just hoping he’s written a book on James Bond.

Ewan Bremner

The most lovable member of the Trainspotting tribe, Ewen Bremner’s Spud constantly seemed lost in the drug-induced mess that surrounded him. If anything went wrong in Trainspotting, he more than likely got the brunt of it. Not only was he sentenced to prison while Renton got sent to rehab, after a botched shop-lifting; but after a night on the booze he ended up pooping his girlfriend’s bed. Even worse, when Begby brought out a knife at one particularly heated point in the film, he was the one who had his hand slashed. But at the end of the film, Renton leaves him £2,000 and hopefully this means he has finally chosen a nice, traditional, stable life. Fat chance though, knowing this lot.

Danny Boyle

The most important member of the Trainspotting collective to have returned, Boyle’s work on the 1996 original re-invigorated British cinema (for a period at least) and proved to the world that he was an energetic, cathartic, and poignant filmmaker that never lost sight of keeping the audience entertained. And even though he has since rightfully been lauded, and even won a Best Director Oscar, he’ll still forever be remembered as the director of Trainspotting. It just feels right that he’s back overseeing the above characters once again, especially since moments like the one below could only come from Boyle's steady hand.

As you may have noticed two of the actors from the original that haven't been confirmed yet are Kevin McKidd and Kelly Macdonald. McKidd has a very good reason for his absence, as his character Tommy MacKenzie died after he breathed in an abundance of cat excrement. But hopefully Kelly Macdonald’s Diane, who became a female icon of her own after the release of Trainspotting, will pop up once again.

Either way, it's just a pleasure to write that Trainspotting 2 will start shooting in late spring of 2016, and we can expect to see it in cinemas at some point in 2017.